February 2004

Asking is an art. Don't take it lightly... "Ask and thou shalt receive...maybe"

Your customers know what they want, right? Well, sort of...sometimes.

The truth is they may not. They might know what they want to happen, but not have any idea what to do to get there. So if they don't know, how are you supposed to? Ah! The eternal question...

And behold, there's the answer: questions. Do you know how to ask the right ones? How to notice the feeling behind what your customer says--and then keep asking more questions? How to identify the customer's deeper motivations? If you don't, you run the risk of trying to market stuff that doesn't meet their genuine-in-spite-being-unspoken needs.

You and I both know that the days of plaid-pant-wearing salespeople getting rich from going for their customers' emotions and selling snake oil in spite its actual ability to solve a problem are long, long gone. Do that today, and the thirteen-thousand-seven-hundred-twenty-three people in the same business come instantly into your customers' consciousness with nothing but a 'click.'

So first you have to know what the real problem is. Have you ever felt the frustration of creating a beautiful marketing piece--talking about features that match exactly what the customer says he wants--only to have him ignore yours and buy from another piece that doesn't seem to fit his stated needs as well? Happens all the time.

Asking questions is truly an art. But take heart. Your salespeople have to learn to do it on their feet in the heat of the moment. As a marketer you get to take your time (well, sometimes). Take advantage of it. Ask. Then ask around. Then ask again.

Then you probably better test, too--because the folks you asked might have been kidding...or in a bad mood...or mad at the last vendor...or who knows? Oh, the joys of marketing.

Hey, we could be deep-sea drilling for oil in the frigid waters of the Alaskan ocean instead, right?

Barbara